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  <channel>
    <title>DEV Community: Spandan Sehgal</title>
    <description>The latest articles on DEV Community by Spandan Sehgal (@sehgalspandan).</description>
    <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan</link>
    <image>
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      <title>DEV Community: Spandan Sehgal</title>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan</link>
    </image>
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    <language>en</language>
    <item>
      <title>AI SLOP v/s polished content</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2025 11:48:38 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/ai-slop-vs-polished-content-2435</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/ai-slop-vs-polished-content-2435</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Is it just me, or has the "AI SLOP" phrase on reddit site gotten completely out of hand?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I recently spent hours writing a deep dive on a topic I’m interested in. I did the research, structured the data, and tried to make it a clean, professional article. The reward? My post got deleted and the comments were just people screaming "AI SLOP" and "ChatGPT bot."&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Since when did having good grammar and a professional structure become a crime?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The irony is that even if you copy-paste a literal Wikipedia article into an AI Detector, it flags it as AI Written. Nowadays it is like if a post isn't a messy, low-effort wall of text with typos, it must be a bot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It’s creating this habit where creators have to intentionally write worse just to prove their content is original. In an era where everyone uses tools to help organize their thoughts, why are we punishing people for actually putting effort into the final presentation?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’d honestly rather read a well-structured "bot-sounding" post that teaches me something than another low-effort "human" rant, but maybe that’s just me.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And I don't know what is up with these AI detectors - they even flag human written content as AI!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Do let me know what are your thoughts about this topic and let's make this post reach to everyone out there facing this issue!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Signing off,&lt;br&gt;
Spandan&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>ai</category>
      <category>community</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Why I’m "Debugging" the Universe</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Dec 2025 03:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/why-im-debugging-the-universe-o8f</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/why-im-debugging-the-universe-o8f</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Why I’m "Debugging" the Universe&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’ve spent a few years looking at code on a screen. But lately, I’ve been looking up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The universe is the ultimate system - full of mysteries, 'bugs' like the Fermi Paradox, and a syntax we’re still trying to learn.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’m launching The Cosmic Syntax: a newsletter where I break down the biggest mysteries of space using the same simple logic we use in tech. No complex equations or concepts. Just curiosity.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My first deep dive on 'The Empty Stadium' (Fermi Paradox) drops in 1 day!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Join the 'commit' here: &lt;a href="https://thecosmicsyntax.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;https://thecosmicsyntax.substack.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>science</category>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>showdev</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hands-On TLS: Inspect Certificates, Verify PFS, and Build a Local HTTPS Server</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/hands-on-tls-inspect-certificates-verify-pfs-and-build-a-local-https-server-55jd</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/hands-on-tls-inspect-certificates-verify-pfs-and-build-a-local-https-server-55jd</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;If you want to &lt;strong&gt;prove&lt;/strong&gt; a site uses modern TLS (not guess), this tutorial gives you &lt;strong&gt;commands&lt;/strong&gt;, a &lt;strong&gt;minimal Node.js HTTPS server&lt;/strong&gt;, and a &lt;strong&gt;checklist you can run right now&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  TL;DR
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Run three quick checks:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Browser certificate&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;openssl s_client&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;DevTools mixed-content scan&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;


&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Use the Node.js example to experiment locally&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Look for:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;TLS 1.2 / TLS 1.3&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;AEAD ciphers&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;ECDHE for Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;


&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  1) Minimal HTTPS Server (Node.js)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Save this as &lt;code&gt;server.js&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
You’ll need &lt;code&gt;key.pem&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;cert.pem&lt;/code&gt; (self-signed is fine for local testing).&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight javascript"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="c1"&gt;// server.js&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;https&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;require&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;https&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;fs&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;require&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;fs&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;options&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;key&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;fs&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;readFileSync&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;key.pem&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;),&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;cert&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;fs&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;readFileSync&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;cert.pem&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;};&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nx"&gt;https&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;createServer&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;options&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;req&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;res&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nx"&gt;res&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;writeHead&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;200&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Content-Type&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;text/plain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;});&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nx"&gt;res&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;end&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;secure chat placeholder&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="se"&gt;\n&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;}).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;listen&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;8443&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nx"&gt;console&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;log&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Listening on https://localhost:8443&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;'&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;});&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Create a Local Certificate (Testing Only)
&lt;/h3&gt;



&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;openssl req &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-x509&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-newkey&lt;/span&gt; rsa:2048 &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-nodes&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="se"&gt;\&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-keyout&lt;/span&gt; key.pem &lt;span class="se"&gt;\&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-out&lt;/span&gt; cert.pem &lt;span class="se"&gt;\&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-days&lt;/span&gt; 365 &lt;span class="se"&gt;\&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-subj&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s2"&gt;"/C=IN/ST=State/L=City/O=Org/CN=localhost"&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Hit It
&lt;/h3&gt;



&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;node server.js
curl &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-vkI&lt;/span&gt; https://localhost:8443 &lt;span class="nt"&gt;--insecure&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;






&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  2) Inspect a Production Certificate (OpenSSL)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  Command
&lt;/h3&gt;



&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;openssl s_client &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-connect&lt;/span&gt; example.com:443 &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-servername&lt;/span&gt; example.com &amp;lt; /dev/null &lt;span class="se"&gt;\&lt;/span&gt;
  | openssl x509 &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-noout&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-issuer&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-subject&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-dates&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-text&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  What to Read
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;notBefore&lt;/code&gt; / &lt;code&gt;notAfter&lt;/code&gt; — certificate validity window&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Issuer&lt;/strong&gt; — should be a known CA (Let’s Encrypt, DigiCert, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;TLS protocol &amp;amp; cipher&lt;/strong&gt; — TLS 1.3 preferred, AEAD ciphers ideal&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  3) Quick &lt;code&gt;curl&lt;/code&gt; Sanity Check
&lt;/h2&gt;



&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;curl &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-vI&lt;/span&gt; https://example.com
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;Look for:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Successful SSL connection&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Certificate verification&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;TLS handshake details in verbose output&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  4) Mixed Content Check (DevTools)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Chrome DevTools → Network → Reload → Filter &lt;code&gt;http&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Any &lt;code&gt;http://&lt;/code&gt; resource on an &lt;code&gt;https://&lt;/code&gt; page is mixed content.&lt;br&gt;
Scripts loaded over HTTP are a real attack vector.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  5) PFS &amp;amp; Cipher Notes
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Check for &lt;strong&gt;ECDHE&lt;/strong&gt; in the key exchange
(automatic in TLS 1.3)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Prefer &lt;strong&gt;AEAD ciphers&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;AES-GCM&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;ChaCha20-Poly1305&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;


&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  6) Session Resumption &amp;amp; 0-RTT (Short)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Session resumption (tickets)&lt;/strong&gt; → faster reconnects&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;0-RTT&lt;/strong&gt; → lower latency, but replay-attack risk
Use carefully for APIs and state-changing requests&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  7) Troubleshooting
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If &lt;code&gt;s_client&lt;/code&gt; fails:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Missing intermediate certs&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Wrong CA bundle&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;SNI mismatch → use &lt;code&gt;-servername&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;


&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Corporate interception&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Cert issuer = corporate CA&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Indicates MITM via proxy&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;


&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  8) Checklist (Copy–Paste)
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Padlock present &amp;amp; certificate valid&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;code&gt;openssl s_client&lt;/code&gt; → TLS 1.2/1.3 + AEAD&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;No mixed &lt;code&gt;http://&lt;/code&gt; resources&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Server prefers ECDHE (PFS)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Certificate issued by a recognized CA (not self-signed)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Want the 60-second demo script and downloadable checklist?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
I bundled the assets (plus a runnable GitHub gist) on Substack — grab them here:&lt;br&gt;
👉 &lt;a href="https://dub.sh/gFaM86e" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;https://dub.sh/gFaM86e&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;




</description>
      <category>cybersecurity</category>
      <category>webdev</category>
      <category>programming</category>
      <category>tutorial</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Beyond Tutorials: Welcome to Spandan’s Sandbox 🛠️</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Dec 2025 07:01:06 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/beyond-tutorials-welcome-to-spandans-sandbox-bkj</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/beyond-tutorials-welcome-to-spandans-sandbox-bkj</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;I’ve loved sharing Docker and PDF tool guides here on Dev.to. But I’ve realized that a single tutorial only solves one problem at a time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wanted to build something more cohesive - a &lt;strong&gt;"Resource Hub"&lt;/strong&gt; for everything I’m learning as a student developer and technical writer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’m officially starting Spandan’s Sandbox. It’s a weekly deep-dive into the "Internal Resources" I use to stay productive:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Terminal Aliases that save me hours.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Database-free tools (like Jotty) that are zero-latency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Custom Docker configs for student life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you’ve followed my guides here, you’ll love what’s coming next in the Sandbox.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Join the hub here: &lt;a href="https://sehgalspandan.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;https://sehgalspandan.substack.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>productivity</category>
      <category>showdev</category>
      <category>news</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Stop letting bloated web tools slow down your workflow (and RAM) 🛑</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:08:53 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/stop-letting-bloated-web-tools-slow-down-your-workflow-and-ram-1d58</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/stop-letting-bloated-web-tools-slow-down-your-workflow-and-ram-1d58</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;As a student developer, my patience for loading spinners is zero. Why wait for a "Free" cloud tool to sync (and sell your data) when you can run a powerhouse locally?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Self-hosting isn't just for people with a massive home lab. It’s a &lt;strong&gt;power-user move&lt;/strong&gt; to reclaim your productivity. 🚀&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here is my &lt;strong&gt;$0 Self-Hosted "Power Stack"&lt;/strong&gt; and the exact guide to getting it running in 10 minutes.&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;📦 The "Power-Tool" Lineup&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;1️⃣ &lt;strong&gt;Bookstack (Documentation)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
My "Brain-in-a-Box." 🧠 Instead of messy folders or scattered Notion pages, it uses a "Bookshelf" metaphor that actually makes sense for project wikis and PCM study notes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fl1hk0bx1o391m0wxp9cz.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fl1hk0bx1o391m0wxp9cz.png" alt=" " width="800" height="436"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;2️⃣ &lt;strong&gt;Stirling-PDF (The PDF "Swiss Army Knife")&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The absolute king of PDF tools. 🛠️ Merge, split, OCR, sign, and convert - all locally. No more "3 free tasks remaining" warnings or uploading sensitive docs to random sites.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F04rb1ztetih8ii29g9dx.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F04rb1ztetih8ii29g9dx.png" alt=" " width="800" height="580"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;3️⃣ &lt;strong&gt;Jotty (Checklists &amp;amp; Notes)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The &lt;strong&gt;Database-Free&lt;/strong&gt; productivity hub. ⚡ Ultra-fast, lightweight, and stores everything in simple files. Since there's no heavy SQL database, it's incredibly portable.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fqlpddnxm95sihkzp83xc.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"&gt;&lt;img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fqlpddnxm95sihkzp83xc.png" alt=" " width="800" height="479"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;


&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;🚀 From Zero to Hero: The Setup Guide&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Forget complicated server setups. We’re using &lt;strong&gt;Docker Compose&lt;/strong&gt;. It’s the magic wand that turns a single text file into a fully running suite of applications.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;🛠️ The Prerequisites&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;A Computer:&lt;/strong&gt; Your current laptop (Windows, Mac, or Linux) is perfect.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Docker Installed:&lt;/strong&gt; Install &lt;a href="https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Docker Desktop&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;📝 Step 1: Create Your "Homelab" Folder&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Open your terminal and run:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="nb"&gt;mkdir &lt;/span&gt;my-power-stack
&lt;span class="nb"&gt;cd &lt;/span&gt;my-power-stack

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h4&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;📄 Step 2: The Magic "Recipe" File&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Create a file named &lt;code&gt;docker-compose.yml&lt;/code&gt; in that folder and paste this code.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;em&gt;⚠️ **Note:&lt;/em&gt;* Change the passwords marked below before saving!*&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight yaml"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="na"&gt;version&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s2"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;5.0"&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="na"&gt;services&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# 📚 Bookstack (Documentation &amp;amp; Wiki)&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;bookstack&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;image&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;container_name&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;bookstack&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;environment&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;APP_URL=http://localhost:6875&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;DB_HOST=bookstack_db&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;DB_USER=bookstack&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;DB_PASS=supersecretpassword&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# CHANGE THIS!&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;DB_DATABASE=bookstackapp&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;volumes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;./bookstack_data:/config&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;ports&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;6875:80&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;restart&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;unless-stopped&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;depends_on&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;bookstack_db&lt;/span&gt;

  &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# The database for Bookstack&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;bookstack_db&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;image&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;lscr.io/linuxserver/mariadb:latest&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;container_name&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;bookstack_db&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;environment&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpassword&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# CHANGE THIS!&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;MYSQL_DATABASE=bookstackapp&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;MYSQL_USER=bookstack&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;MYSQL_PASSWORD=supersecretpassword&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# CHANGE THIS!&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;volumes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;./bookstack_db_data:/config&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;restart&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;unless-stopped&lt;/span&gt;

  &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# 📑 Stirling-PDF (Your Local PDF Tools)&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;stirling-pdf&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;image&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;frooodle/s-pdf:latest&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;container_name&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;stirling-pdf&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;ports&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;8080:8080&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;restart&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;unless-stopped&lt;/span&gt;

  &lt;span class="c1"&gt;# ✍️ Jotty (Checklists &amp;amp; Notes)&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="na"&gt;jotty&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;image&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;fccview/jotty:latest&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;container_name&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;jotty&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;ports&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;3000:3000&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;volumes&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;
      &lt;span class="pi"&gt;-&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;./jotty_data:/app/data&lt;/span&gt;
    &lt;span class="na"&gt;restart&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="pi"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;unless-stopped&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h4&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;🚀 Step 3: Ignite the Engine&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In your terminal, run:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight shell"&gt;&lt;code&gt;docker-compose up &lt;span class="nt"&gt;-d&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;Docker will pull the images and start everything in the background.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h4&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;🎉 Step 4: Access Your Tools&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h4&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;📚 &lt;strong&gt;Bookstack:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;http://localhost:6875&lt;/code&gt; (Login: &lt;a href="mailto:admin@admin.com"&gt;admin@admin.com&lt;/a&gt; / password)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;📑 &lt;strong&gt;Stirling-PDF:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;http://localhost:8080&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;✍️ &lt;strong&gt;Jotty:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;code&gt;http://localhost:3000&lt;/code&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;




&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  &lt;strong&gt;💡 Why This is a "Student Developer" Superpower&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You just built a personal suite that is:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Yours:&lt;/strong&gt; No one else has your data.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Free:&lt;/strong&gt; $0 licensing costs.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Portable:&lt;/strong&gt; Move to a new laptop? Just copy the &lt;code&gt;my-power-stack&lt;/code&gt; folder and run the command again.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This isn't just about taking notes; it's about taking control of your digital environment. That's an engineering mindset. 🛠️&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Want more dev-tool deep dives? &amp;gt; I’m building a community for student developers to master local-first workflows and open-source hacks. 📩 Be among the first to join my Substack: &lt;a href="https://dub.sh/5NORcC1" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Subscribe here&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;👇 Did you get it running? Let me know in the comments if you hit a snag or what your first Bookstack page is going to be!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;




</description>
      <category>docker</category>
      <category>productivity</category>
      <category>webdev</category>
      <category>tutorial</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Year I Lost My Coding Touch (And Found Myself)</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2025 19:40:29 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/the-year-i-lost-my-coding-touch-and-found-myself-40k4</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/the-year-i-lost-my-coding-touch-and-found-myself-40k4</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;This year didn't go as planned. Twelve months ago, I was focused on becoming a developer, with a clear path ahead. Then, life got in the way.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;School pressure, zero motivation, and endless comparisons with 16-year-old startup founders all took their toll. I completely drifted. For the first time, I felt the worry creep in: "What if I'm not meant for this?"&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  💡 The Unexpected Lessons
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here's the twist: that time off taught me more than any tutorial could have. Stepping away from the code base forced me to learn different, essential skills:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I learned how to write clearly and simply.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I discovered how to find discipline when motivation was completely missing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I realized my identity can't be tied to just one skill—it's too fragile.&lt;/p&gt;




&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  🌱 The Slow Rebuild
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm rebuilding now, but the approach is different. It's not through long, intense hours, but with small, consistent efforts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’m still not where I want to be, but I'm finally honest about my current situation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Falling off track doesn't mean you're done. Sometimes, it's just the moment you outgrow an old version of the dream.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Maybe this isn't failure. Maybe it's an upgrade.&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>devjournal</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Thinking to return on dev.to</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/thinking-to-return-on-devto-3jlf</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/thinking-to-return-on-devto-3jlf</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Hey everyone, it’s been quite some time since I last posted here, and honestly, I’ve been a bit out of the coding loop lately. I’m thinking about jumping back in and might start posting again soon. Just wanted to say hi and let you know I’m around. Looking forward to catching up with this awesome community!&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>devjournal</category>
      <category>discuss</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Perplexity Playground: A hidden gem</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 20 Apr 2024 11:40:53 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/perplexity-playground-a-hidden-gem-2ok8</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/perplexity-playground-a-hidden-gem-2ok8</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hello 👋 everyone!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Today I'll be sharing a secret A.I. tool that will help you get the "winning edge" and stay ahead of other A.I. users! This tool can help you with a variety of topics, such as research, code generation, general chat, content generation, and much more.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  TL;DR
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Basically, perplexity AI has its own AI playground, which lets you experiment with different open source LMs completely for free, and that too with blazing-fast response speeds! It offers various powerful llms, such as Mistral's 8x7b-instruct, Google's Gemma-7b-it, Codellama-70b-instruct, and much more!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Pre-requisites
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To get started, all you need is a free account on &lt;a href="https://www.perplexity.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Perplexity's&lt;/strong&gt; website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Let's dive into it!
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now that you have a free account set up on the website, you can visit the homepage of Perplexity, look at the bottom of the webpage, locate the footer link showing "Playground," and open it up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On this page, from the drop-down menu, you can select various open source LMs for free and get help with a huge array of tasks. You also get a response speed tracker above the prompt bar to let you know how fast the AI model is.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, go ahead and try out those models and speed up or get help with your work quickly!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Use-Cases:
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Coding Assistance: The model &lt;strong&gt;codellama&lt;/strong&gt; is specialized for this task, it can help you generate, review, debug your code effectively. It supports various languages like, javascript, tailwind, java, python, mysql, react and etc&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Content writing: Models like &lt;strong&gt;sonar&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;mixtral 8x22b&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;llama 3 70b&lt;/strong&gt; are trained on latest datasets and are great for content generation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Research work: The model "sonar" by perplexity and "gemma" by google are up-to-date AI models which can help you find out relevant, accurate information online.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is just a partial list of use-cases of this tool, there are much more variety of tasks for which you can use these tools!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Some limitations
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As you know, nothing is perfect. Everything has its own pros and cons, and when it comes to AIs, there are definitely some chances of errors.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, inaccurate or wrong responses are produced.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;You need to clear the chat window every time you change the llm from the drop-down list.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, you may encounter never-ending responses with weird characters and text.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Conclusion
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Overall, if you want a single platform for various use-cases and want to get help from some of the most powerful open llms for free, Perplexity Playground is a must visit for you. You can get help with coding, content writing, SEO, brainstorming, etc.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;What are your thoughts on the use of AI tools? And what are some of the biggest challenges that you've faced while using AIs?&lt;br&gt;
Let me know in the comment section&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, that's it for today. I hope you liked the post.&lt;br&gt;
Feel free to comment :D&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thank you for reading!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>productivity</category>
      <category>ai</category>
      <category>tooling</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>How can I improve my posts?</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:42:33 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/how-can-i-improve-my-posts-55h5</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/how-can-i-improve-my-posts-55h5</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Hi everyone!&lt;br&gt;
I hope till now you are enjoying my posts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Right now, I just want to ask you all that, kindly give me some tips for improving my posts, and how can I provide you all quality content by pointing out my areas of improvement. You can go throug my posts and then let me know how can I progress in this journey. I really need support from all of you in my journey!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thank you for your support till now.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Take care!&lt;br&gt;
Stay tuned!&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>watercooler</category>
      <category>help</category>
      <category>career</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Supercharge Your Workflow with These Top Tools</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sat, 13 Apr 2024 09:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/supercharge-your-workflow-with-these-top-tools-5he0</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/supercharge-your-workflow-with-these-top-tools-5he0</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Introduction
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hello, everyone! 👋🏻 Today I'm going to share with you some of the tools that I frequently use and that everyone, especially a developer should be aware of. This post discusses tools for research, content creation/editing, and much more!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  1 Perplexity: The best AI Research Tool
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.perplexity.ai/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Perplexity AI&lt;/a&gt; is a powerful tool for improving content creation, research, and knowledge discovery. It is optimized in producing high-quality content for a variety of industries, including bloggers, professionals, and academics. It includes features such as accurate , source citation, a user-friendly interface, and context awareness. Perplexity AI uses advanced NLP and machine learning technologies to provide precise answers . What makes it stand out from other tools in this category is its feature that enables to upload 3 documents / day and use the pro search feature 5 times / 4hr which makes it more engaging and helpful for a wide range of use cases. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  2 Copy AI: Best AI tool for marketing and SEO
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://copy.ai" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Copy.ai&lt;/a&gt; is a tool that excels in content generation, offering a wide range of benefits to content creators, marketers, and businesses. It includes marketing content generation, product descriptions, blog post ideas, SEO titles, and meta descriptions. It is particularly useful for content marketers, e-commerce businesses, bloggers, and individuals. It helps users generate engaging, SEO-optimized content. It also comes with a sleek UI and has a prebuilt templates library to get you started. This AI comes loaded with a ton of incredible features which will definitely help you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  3 QuillBot: Best AI Tool for content paraphrasing, AI content detection and plagiarism checker
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://quillbot.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;QuillBot&lt;/a&gt; is a writing platform that provides a variety of features to help you improve your written text. It can paraphrase, summarise, check grammar and plagiarism, translate, outline, and generate citations. Some of its best features include detecting AI generate content, rephrasing text, summarizing long text and generating citations. And its "QuillBot Flow" feature is a icing on the cake as it integrates all of its tool into one place and works like an online word processor.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  4 Remove.bg : The goto tool for removing backgrounds from images in a single click
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://remove.bg" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Remove.bg&lt;/a&gt; is an online tool which helps users to quickly remove a background from an image and offers a high precision and doing so, producing ultra-sharp transparent images. It uses AI to detect the background and the subject. Additionally, you can also use its brush tool to manually select the areas to remove/restore. The thing I like the most about it is its speed, accuracy and the ability to directly paste images from clipboard and cut the time wastage.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  5 AdGuard: The master of ad blockers
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We all are annoyed of those distracting ads we regularly see on various websites, right? This is where adguard comes in! &lt;a href="https://adguard.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;AdGuard&lt;/a&gt; is an chrome extension and mobile/pc app which totally blocks all of those annoying ads you see on various websites and thus reduces your &lt;strong&gt;carbon footprints&lt;/strong&gt;. It blocks all the trackers and suspicious websites. It comes with a lot of pre-loaded features which let you control you privacy. It sometimes stops youtube ads too! So, give it a try!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  6 Beeper: All of your social media platforms in one inbox!
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://beeper.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Beeper&lt;/a&gt; is a mobile/pc app which integrates 14 different social media networks such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, SMS and provides a single inbox for them which is well organized. You can easily distinguish between the dms from various sources just by looking at the icons. It allows you to send messages directly from the app to the respective platform. Overall, it makes it easier for users to manage their social profiles. You can self host it too!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  7 freeCodeCamp.org
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://freecodecamp.org" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;freeCodeCamp&lt;/a&gt; is a non profit organization which offers a wide array of free tutorials and courses on a huge list of topics. It also offers free certification and exercises to practice your coding skills! Apart from this, they have a YouTube channel too on which they post all sort of courses and tutorials related to coding and I.T! Its a great resource for beginners to start with.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  8 Pinterest
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Yes! Pinterest. Surprised?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Not only is Pinterest a useful resource for online tutorials, ideas, and inspiration, but it also functions as a search engine and can drastically boost website traffic! You can make pins with appropriate titles and descriptions for your updates, linking them to your website. Your pin may appear when a user searches for a specific term on Pinterest or Google if you follow to the appropriate SEO guidelines. This gives the &lt;strong&gt;"winning edge"&lt;/strong&gt; for your website or product.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  9 Fotor: The best AI image editing suite
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.fotor.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Fotor&lt;/a&gt; Fotor is an AI based Image editing web service which allows you to precisely perform all sorts of operations on images. On the other hand if you want to get all the functionalities of photoshop, then &lt;a href="https://photopea.com" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Photopea&lt;/a&gt; is a must visit site for you, it offers all the image editing tools that you may come across in photoshop, and that too for &lt;strong&gt;free!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  10 DevDocs
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://devdocs.io" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;DevDocs.io&lt;/a&gt; is a website which offers documneations for a variety of languages online. It helps you quickly refer to the documentation easily in a well-structured manner&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  11 Coolors
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://coolor.co" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Coolors&lt;/a&gt; is a website that lets you generate color palletes for your website which follow the accessibility guidelines. It lets you choose number of colors you want to generate and lock a specific color and generate combinations with it. Also, it comes with a pallete visualizer which helps you see a demo of what the current color design would look like on some mock websites!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  12 Freepik and Pexels
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.freepik.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Freepik&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://www.pexels.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Pexels&lt;/a&gt; are online platforms that offer a large number of high-quality stock images and assets for a your projects. These platforms provide a diverse range of visuals, such as photographs, illustrations, vectors, and graphics, to meet a variety of creative needs. They are fantastic resources for finding visually appealing and professionally created content for websites, presentations, and social media campaigns.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  13 Undesign: The Toolbox
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://undesign.learn.uno/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;Undesign&lt;/a&gt; is a platform which has a curated list of different online resources and tools ranging from a wide variety of uses, such as "Inspiration", "Code Snippets", "PPT templates", "Typography", "Illustrations" and much much more! The list of tools on this website is awesome and covers almost all use cases!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Conclusion
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, the internet is flooded with useful tools and resources just waiting to be discovered. Using these tools can boost your productivity, creativity, and overall online experience. Continue exploring, and stay tuned for future lists of incredible websites and tools that I'll be sharing with you!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading!&lt;br&gt;
Feel free to comment down your thoughts or ideas! &lt;strong&gt;Let's Discuss &amp;lt;3&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>ai</category>
      <category>resources</category>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>tooling</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Learn JavaScript for Free: A Beginner's Guide to Getting Started with JavaScript</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:01:35 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/learn-javascript-for-free-a-beginners-guide-to-getting-started-with-javascript-2f61</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/learn-javascript-for-free-a-beginners-guide-to-getting-started-with-javascript-2f61</guid>
      <description>&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Introduction
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hello 👋 today I'm going to discuss what is JavaScript, what can it do, and by the end of the post I will be leaving some free and useful resources to get you started with JavaScript!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What is JavaScript?
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript/First_steps/What_is_JavaScript" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;MDN&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"&lt;em&gt;JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages — every time a web page does more than just sit there and display static information for you to look at — displaying timely content updates, interactive maps, animated 2D/3D graphics, scrolling video jukeboxes, etc. — you can bet that JavaScript is probably involved. It is the third layer of the layer cake of standard web technologies, two of which (HTML and CSS)&lt;/em&gt;"&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So, to summarize, JavaScript is the Programming Language for the web which helps in adding interactivity to our web applications.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  What can JavaScript do? &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  1. Running code in response to certain events occurring on a web page.
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can use eventlisteners in JavaScript to perform a certain action when a certain event is triggered, for example:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight javascript"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;button&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nb"&gt;document&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;querySelector&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;button&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nx"&gt;button&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;addEventListener&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;click&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;event&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nx"&gt;button&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;textContent&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s2"&gt;`Click count: &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;${&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;event&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;detail&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;`&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;});&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;p&gt;By this we can easily get to know how many times a button is clicked!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  2. JavaScript can change CSS styles
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can use JavaScript to dynamically change the CSS properties of an element as we can set CSS styles for one or more elements in the DOM, modify, remove, or even change the entire stylesheet for your page.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight javascript"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="nb"&gt;document&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;getElementById&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;demo&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;).&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;style&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;fontSize&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;35px&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;;&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  3. JavaScript allows us to fetch information and display it on our website.
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;strong&gt;Fetch API&lt;/strong&gt; provides a JavaScript interface for accessing and manipulating components of the protocol, such as requests and responses.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is as simple as this:&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight js-code-highlight"&gt;
&lt;pre class="highlight javascript"&gt;&lt;code&gt;&lt;span class="k"&gt;async&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kd"&gt;function&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;logMovies&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;{&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="k"&gt;await&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;fetch&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s2"&gt;http://example.com/movies.json&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="dl"&gt;"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="kd"&gt;const&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;movies&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="k"&gt;await&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nx"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;json&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;();&lt;/span&gt;
  &lt;span class="nx"&gt;console&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nf"&gt;log&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nx"&gt;movies&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;);&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;span class="p"&gt;}&lt;/span&gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;/div&gt;



&lt;h3&gt;
  
  
  4. JavaScript can be used to make Mobile Applications  &lt;br&gt;
&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;"Mobile apps make it easier for users to access information, services, and products from their mobile devices anywhere and at any time. Mobile apps allow businesses to engage with their customers through personalized experiences, notifications, and real-time updates. And JavaScript frameworks are very useful in mobile app development. JavaScript frameworks can be used to develop such mobile apps that can run on multiple platforms with the same codebase which effectively reduces the development time and cost."&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/top-javascript-frameworks-for-mobile-apps-development/#:~:text=Mobile%20apps%20make,time%20and%20cost." rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;source - GeekForGeeks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hence, javascript allows programmers to create mobile apps by using various libraries built be other coders to make our development experience streamlined.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;



&lt;h2&gt;
  
  
  Resources to get you started with JavaScript! &lt;br&gt;
&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, now I will be providing you &lt;strong&gt;best free resources for beginners to get started with JavaScript and learn JavaScript easily!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkZNo7MFNFg" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;freeCodeCamp.org JavaScript crash course&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWKjhJtqVAbk2qRZtWSzCIN38JC_NdhW5" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JavaScript basics playlist by Beau, freeCodeCamp.org&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWKjhJtqVAbleDe3_ZA8h3AO2rXar-q2V" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Learn JavaScript with examples, freeCodeCamp&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.w3schools.com/js/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;W3Schools - JS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Full JavaScript Developer Roadmap, roadmap.sh&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MDN JS guide&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MDN JS reference&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/javascript/" rel="noopener noreferrer"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;JavaScript tutorial, geekforgeeks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These JavaScript resources are enough to get you started.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I hope you enjoyed reading the post!&lt;br&gt;
Thanks for reading!&lt;br&gt;
Feel free to comment down your thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Stay Safe :D&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>javascript</category>
      <category>webdev</category>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>resources</category>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Thanks giving</title>
      <dc:creator>Spandan Sehgal</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 25 Mar 2024 13:50:05 +0000</pubDate>
      <link>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/thanks-giving-28bj</link>
      <guid>https://dev.to/sehgalspandan/thanks-giving-28bj</guid>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;Hi there! This is gonna be a short post. And its all going to be about you. Yes, "you", my follower or a persistent reader. I want to thank you all for helping me reach my 1000 followers on this blog. I was inactive for a long time as I had exams, even then people were following me here. Since I'm back now, so I promise you all that I will write quality and useful content on my blog and will for sure, try to be consistent in doing so! I really am greatful to all of you for showing your support till now and rectifying me where I was wrong.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once again, thank you all!&lt;br&gt;
I hope you continue to show your support in the future too  and show your love towards me.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;See you soon in the next post, till then take care and goodbye!&lt;/p&gt;

</description>
      <category>watercooler</category>
      <category>discuss</category>
      <category>news</category>
    </item>
  </channel>
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